The final shows

Saturday night was a bit of a bust for me. After Jandek, I caught a few minutes of Studemont Project at Club One Fifteen. I always find Studemont to be charismatic performers, with Cruz and Caption rapping with passion in front of a tight rhythm section. I am sad to say that I’ve never seen the band perform for as many people as it deserves, and SXSW was no different. I guess the club is too far from 6th Street to get a lot of foot traffic.

Hurried over to the Parish to see Yppah, which seems to fluctuate between being from Houston and Austin. When the announcer referred to it as an Austin group, I dashed out to try to catch Tilly and the Wall. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I’ve been interested in Tilly and the Wall and I know I’ll have other chances to see Yppah soon.

This turned out to be the wrong decision as the badge line for Tilly and the Wall at the Beauty Bar Patio — which is attached to the Beauty Bar, which rivals Beerland for the filthiest bar in downtown Austin — was 200 badge holders deep after the patio was at capacity. Though the show was outdoors, the sound didn’t carry far and we were all forced to stand near a billowing dumpster. It was miserable.

Still hopeful that I would be able to end the night with a bang, I headed back to a mostly-empty Club One Fifteen to see Peekaboo Theory. Then the nausea set it before the sound check was over. I figure that had something to do with not eating enough, not drinking enough water, and, oh yeah, utter exhaustion.

Not quite the bang I was hoping for. At least the traffic away from downtown was interesting.